In the prior art there have been many proposals for dispensing various fluids into the water stream coming through a shower fixture of a bathroom. They are characterized by having one fault of a very serious nature. They lack means for preventing clogging.
This clogging problem occurs at the ends of spouts and constricted openings which deliver the thick fluids to be admixed with the water flow. Creme rinses and liquid soap are particularly susceptible to clogging.
The clogging problem can be particularly great between the spouts of the right and left valves and delivery manifold surfaces therebeneath.
We prefer that there be a delivery manifold which delivers fluids from the various spouts down to an inlet into the main water stream below. It is desirable that the valve handles be as low as possible so as to be easily reached by short persons. For the latter reason it is desirable that the manifold have the least possible height. This leads to the necessity for the right and left side walls of the manifold to be sharply inwardly inclined from the sides of the valve area so as to sharply inwardly incline toward the inlet to the main water stream.
However, this sharp inclination raises a clogging problem because the spouts at the right and left sides of the unit are then necessarily quite close to the right and left side walls of the manifold, whereby the dispensed fluids have a tendency to drip upon the manifold side walls, and to stick there and clog because of their accumulation whenever such a unit is built as described which has been a prior art way. It is not a satisfactory solution to this problem to make an extremely elongated manifold because the same would place the valves at an extensive height.
We recognize that it is further desirable that the sides of the manifold be as far out of the bather's way as possible. Even if they were inclined at an angle of perhaps 45 degrees they would be more in the way than is necessary. We, therefore, have conceived that the side walls of the manifold are the most out of a bather's way if they are concave. But this very concavity places each side wall of the manifold still closer to the side spouts, and thereby increases the clogging problem, even though the advantages of more room for the bather and lower and more accessible valves are being preserved.
We have discovered a new concept making it possible to have all of these advantages without the great disadvantage of clogging by providing a special auxiliary water flow passing by the lower end of each spout.
We have discovered still another improvement which is the concept of a special notch in a weir disposed behind the spouts, such a notch being directly behind the lower end of a specific spout. With a different notch of this kind for each spout the flow across the spouts is direct and well-aimed for most effective washing of the lower end of the spouts to prevent clogging so that no build-up or accumulation of dried lotions or oils occurs.
We have discovered in testing that all of the different kinds of oils and lotions that we have found to be adviseable to use in such a dispenser have operated free of clogging when the above provisions are used, even though the side walls of the manifold are concave on their undersides and even though the height of the manifold is at minimum for the lowest possible position of the valve handles.
We have conceived that it is desirable that the flow of water be continuously on after the flow of dispensed fluids has been valved off. In this way the water flow across the notches in the weir continues so as to wash the nozzles on after the valves are closed for the various lotions and oils.
Another objective of this invention is to provide the dispenser with the additional feature of transparent fluid reservoir walls so that the user can easily see when to add fluid.
Yet another objective is to provide the dispenser with a lid which can be removed with one single motion for opening up the compartments for all of the fluid and oils at once.
A most important objective is our concept of having a completely removable reservoir and valve module which can be completely taken down off of the permanently attached manifold for the convenience of filling the module chambers with the fluids at a handy level of operations, such as by holding the reservoir module against the chest with the forearm somewhat in the manner of a football quarterback holding a football so that the operator's two hands and one arm are then free for holding a lotion container, unscrewing its cap and tilting the container to fill the reservoirs with a handiness and safety that will insure against spillage.
Still another important feature is the provision of having the valve and reservoir module designed so that its underside is in a horizontal plane so that it can be rested on a table during filling or during sales display at times when it is disassembled.
Yet another of our concepts is to provide the valves in such positions that the valve handles have no part extending down below the bottom of the walls of the reservoir and valve module so that the valve handles themselves do not interfere with the resting of the module on a horizontal surface in an erect and stable manner.
Still another objective is to have the valve spouts themselves terminate at points above the plane of the lowermost sides of the housing of the valve and reservoir module so that the product will rest with stability on a flat surface.
Still a further objective is to provide the valve spouts with inclined lower edges, higher on the rearward side so that the water washing across them strikes the higher side for more effective washing thereof, so that the full force of the water that is washing the spouts is not diminished as much as by portions of the spout itself. One might say that the wash water enters directly into the lower end of the spout because of this inclined lower spout edge feature.
Another object of the invention is to provide a product having beauty. Part of this beauty is achieved by having the right and left side walls of the delivery manifold extending downwardly from the valves, each of a concave shape on its underside as is particularly attractive in frontal elevation, this artistic feature also having the advantage of greater space of movement for the bather because the right and left side walls of the manifold are the more out of the way but having the disadvantage of presenting a clogging danger, which latter is solved, however, as aforesaid.
A particularly important feature is the provision in the delivery manifold of a higher back wall, substantially higher than the forward wall so that water does not tend to flow over the back wall and down between the back wall of the delivery manifold and the back wall of the reservoir and valve module.
In the prior art it is sometimes proposed that dispenser fluids be valved from containers simply held in the shower area but not subject to admixture with the flow of the water as it comes out of the shower. But with such dispensers clogging is a great problem. We all have the experience of how soap tends to accumulate on surfaces. When it obstructs the outlet spout of a valve, then this very quickly causes clogging.
And so one of the particular objectives is to eliminate clogging so that a person need not stand on a chair and reach into a dispenser in some manner which would ordinarily be above the person's head, just in order to try to unclog such a device.
One of the great problems is the valve spouts must be very small. For example, the diameter of a hole of a valve spout is approximately one-eighth of an inch which is a size desirable, yet such small sizes are very cloggable unless special concepts for preventing clogging are available as in this invention.
A particular objective is to carefully select the size of an orifice delivering wash water past the spouts from a main stream. Such an orifice must be very small because the main stream is at a high pressure and the flow up and over the weir and past the spouts must be at a much, much lower pressure. We have discovered that an orifice diameter for this purpose of approximately 25/1000ths of an inch is effective.
A very important feature of the invention is to provide a conduit attachable to the pipe ordinarily receiving a shower head, with the lower end of the conduit receiving the shower head thereon, in which the conduit has a most unusual interior.
We conceive that the interior of the conduit should have an upper portion of larger diameter for lower pressure flow, a central portion of smaller diameter for high pressure flow, and a lower portion of larger diameter for low pressure flow again, at least around the sides of the lower larger diameter area, although, of course, the central part of the lower conduit portion will inevitably be receiving high pressure flow from the constricted central portion of the conduit, with there being an orifice leading from the upper lower flow conduit area into the space behind the weir, so that water through the orifice will flow upwardly because of pressure from water which is held back by the constricted central area of the conduit.
Another objective is to cause the flow of water and dispensed fluids back into the main water stream to be through a hole leading to a lower and larger diametered portion of the main stream conduit so that it enters at the sides of a jet of water spurting out into the lower conduit portion from the constricted central conduit portion, whereby the flow is downward and there is no danger of a back pressure of water up through the dispensed fluids port such as occurs at the water up-flow orifice from the main stream flow.
In the prior art the most common method of delivering the dispensed fluids downwardly into the water stream of a shower has been to have a dispensed fluids container having external threads received in the internal threads of the fixture that mixes the dispensed fluids with the water flow to the shower head. One of the problems with such proposals is that there is spillage waste of the expensive fluids as their upside-down threaded container is applied to the internally threaded fixture.
Still a more serious problem is that many shorter persons reaching up to a shower fixture to screw in a container are not handy at this and they fail to hold the container threads in alignment with the other threads, whereby the threads become "cross-threaded" so that there is a blocking or jamming of the threads, causing frustration. This also leads to more leakage and a nuisance of unscrewing again with still more leakage while the threads are realigned so as to get them straight.
Another solution to the refilling problem is to have large reservoir sections permanently fixed to those parts of the dispenser which remain permanently attached to the plumbing. In that way refilling of the containers is done by pouring fluid into them from the refill-containers purchased from time to time from retail stores. However, this is an inadequate solution. The different members of a family have different desires as regards the types of dispensed fluids they use. With a permanently attached reservoir there is no way to get the children's fluids out of the way in order to fill the reservoir with the fluids for the man of the house. Likewise, the lady of the house wants different fluids than the man and she would have no way of getting the man's fluids out of the way if there were a permanent attachment.
And so we propose multiple reservoir sections which are removable as a unit and replaceable with another reservoir assembly which could contain entirely different fluids. But this gives rise to still a further problem, because the connection of the upper reservoir to the delivery manifold must not only be a removable connection, but also one from which there is no leakage.
This problem we solve by mounting the valves on the reservoir so that they can be shut off, whereby there is no leakage of fluids during reservoir storage, which latter might be far from the shower area.